Free Mortal Desire by Alexander Bryn Page B

…’
    ‘What do you know about Elliot and me?’
    ‘I have a great deal of knowledge about Mr. McEwan that I am not able to tell you for confidentiality reasons, and I only know what I have observed of you with your mannerisms, choices, body language, plus a little bit more because of the time that we shared at the dog funeral tonight.’ I had been forgetting to do the breathing thing. I hoped that she didn’t notice.
    She smiled at me and then put her hands over her face. ‘What can you tell me about me?’
    ‘Are you sure that you want to hear that?’
    ‘Yes—go ahead.’
    ‘That’s not a question.’
    ‘Liam aka Henry, what do you know about Sarah Flynn?’
    ‘Sarah Flynn has red hair, green eyes, a beautiful smile. She is tall and slender. Men notice her. She can be nervous at times shown by the way that she knots her fingers together, like you are doing now. She is pleasant to all her talk to her, but you can see her summing people up, like you are doing to me now. And that is the end of the Sarah Flynn reading for today.’
    ‘How old are you?’
    ‘Twenty-eight.’
    ‘Do you wish to work as an Elevator Operator for the course of your natural working life?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Elaborate.’
    ‘That is not a question.’
    She rolled her eyes at me. ‘If you could choose to do a different job, what would it be?’
    ‘I would like to be a seeker, a healer.’
    ‘Which one, a seeker or a healer?’
    ‘Both.’
    ‘How can a person do that?’
    ‘By study, observation.’ I was lying. I had a gift that I was forbidden to use.
    ‘Are you studying?’
    ‘Bing! Your twenty questions are up. Shall we continue our journey to the ground floor so that you can emerge enlightened about me?’ I said as I stood.
    ‘Only if you remove your eye lenses so that I can see your blue eyes Liam,’ she said to me standing, moving closer and placing her hand on my arm.
    I breathed deeply as she touched me. ‘I can’t do that Sarah. Not here. Not now.’ I pushed the ground floor button and the elevator descended. The doors opened without a sound, and I waited for Sarah to step out of the elevator first.
    ‘If you wait five minutes I can go and remove my eye lenses and meet you at the revolving doors ... if you like.’
    She turned to face me, and nodded. ‘I like. I will wait. Do I call you Henry, or Liam?’
    ‘For you, I will answer to either. But if I answer to neither, know that it is for a reason.’
    She took a deep breath and smiled a little. I brushed my hand over hers as I left to remove the lenses from my eyes.
    *~*~*~*~*
    She stood to the left of the revolving doors reading her cell phone, twirling her hair around her finger while she waited for me. I wanted to do that. The blackness of her fitted dress emphasized the deep red orange colouring of her hair, and her eye catching figure.
    As I walked towards her, she glanced up at me—twice, and smiled.
    ‘Let’s get you home Miss Sarah, before the predators are let out to play,’ I said, pulling my black three quarter length coat on.
    She folded my collar over and looked deeply into my blue eyes and then my lips. I smiled crookedly at her.
    ‘Ah—there are the eyes that I love, Liam,’ she said, almost like a melody. I bowed my head and looked to the floor and closed my eyes feeling self-conscious.
    We cannot be together, we cannot ...
    She slipped on her coat and we left the building. I pulled the collar of my coat up to cover my neck, to cover my scent, and then tucked my hands into my pockets.
    Sarah linked her arm through mine and we fell into the same walking rhythm to the taxi rank. If I was mortal, I am sure that my heart would have beat as one with hers as well.
    ‘How is your head?’ I asked her when we sat in the back of the cab together, chemical attraction bouncing between our close bodies.
    She touched the back of her head where she had hit it against the brick wall the previous night. ‘Funny, I haven’t even thought about it since